EP3181484A1 - Capsule cup of a coffee capsule - Google Patents

Abstract

It is proposed a made of plastic capsule cup (1), which hardly deformed due to its shape during the extraction process and causes an improved penetration of the injection needles of the extraction machine. The capsule cup 1 has a corresponding conical jacket wall, which has an outwardly projecting flange (3) at the upper edge and is completely closed at the opposite end by a cup bottom (4). The cup bottom (4) has a transition region, which merges from the conical casing wall (2) via two opposing curvatures in an annular wall 5. The lower edge (8) of the annular wall (5) passes over a thinned, to the interior (20) inclined towards area to a plate (6). This centric plate (6) has a wall thickness corresponding to the wall thickness of the jacket wall (2). The thinned annular surface (7) forms an injection membrane.

Description

The present invention relates to a capsule cup for the manufacture of a coffee capsule, which is used in an extraction cup of an extraction coffee machine, and is shaped so that it finds its way into the extraction cup of the extraction coffee machine.

Such coffee capsules consist of a capsule cup, in which a predetermined amount of coffee powder is filled and then by means of an aluminum foil which is welded on an extraction-side flange of the coffee capsule and thus sealed.

The most widely used coffee capsule of this type is sold worldwide by Nestle SA under the registered trademark Nespresso®. These coffee capsules suitable for extraction coffee machines are among the most widely used extraction coffee machines and these machines are also offered under the registered trademark Nespresso®. It is therefore not surprising that now a variety of coffee capsules are available on the market, which are designed to be compatible with these extraction coffee machines.

State of the art

The majority of all today available on the market coffee capsules all have a substantially same outer shape, as they already from the U.S. Patent 4,136,202 is known. While the original Nespresso® capsules are still made of aluminum, the compatible imitation capsules are made of plastic. These known coffee capsules have a substantially conical jacket wall, at the upper edge of the cup a peripheral flange is arranged and the cup bottom is completely closed. The design of the capsule cups must be adapted to the extraction coffee machines. These machines have an extraction cup in which the coffee capsule is held during the extraction process, and consequently the capsule cups must as closely as possible match the shape of the extraction cups in the extraction coffee machines.

While originally the injection of the water by means of a single injection needle was introduced centrally through the cup bottom, this is done today by means of three at regular intervals around the center arranged injection needles. This type of water injection ensures an improved, completely flowing through the capsule water flow.

For the time being, the capsule cups made of injection-molded plastic have been limited to bringing to market solutions in which the bottom of the capsule cup does not have to be perforated. Such solutions are preferred, on the one hand for patent law reasons, but on the other hand because it was feared that the hot injection needles could clog or at least stick together by the contact with the plastic when they come into contact with the hot injection needles. Accordingly, various variants have been provided in which the bottom of the capsule cup was already provided with prefabricated holes. However, these variants necessarily required a gas-tight outer packaging of aluminum-coated plastic films, which ensure aroma protection. In a later step then capsule cups appeared on the market that were completely closed. Such a solution shows, for example, the WO 2012/137052 in which increased pressure nubs are provided on the capsule cup, which are at least partially surrounded by predetermined breaking lines and are opened when the capsule cup is pressed into the extraction cup of the machine.

Today, however, a variety of rotationally symmetrical capsule cups are on the market, which have a completely closed cup bottom. These are capsule cups that are made of a plastic that has a slightly increased softening temperature range, so that the risk of melting of the plastic to the injection needles when penetrating the bottom of the capsule cups no longer occurs.

The formal design of the bottom of the capsule cups can be practically reduced to two variants. One version provides a completely planar design of the cup bottom, while the other version shows a convex, outwardly convex shape of the cup bottom. The first version shows for example the EP 512 468 while the second version, for example, from the EP 554 469 evident. Both versions are completely unproblematic with capsule cups made of aluminum. For versions that are made of plastic, but both versions are very problematic. During the heating of the capsule of plastic this is soft and deforms even at low force influence, as this is done by the penetration of the injection needle. As a result, the bottom of the capsule cup evades the pressure of the needle and bulges inward, so that the needles are often completely or partially not penetrated by the injection needles. As a result, the extraction process in the capsule is insufficient and the coffee tastes correspondingly watery. In addition, part of the hot water outside the capsule cup enters the extraction cup of the extraction coffee machine. As a result this effect, the capsule cups had to be provided with seals.

Object of the invention

It is therefore the object of the present invention to provide a capsule cup according to the preamble of claim 1, which ensures an improved penetration of the hypodermic needles through the cup bottom of a capsule cup made of plastic.

This object is achieved by a capsule cup with the features of claim 1. The capsule cup has a circumferential, outwardly directed annular wall, on which the bottom is integrally formed and this has a relative to the annular wall inwardly offset, circular plate having an inwardly inclined Ring surface is connected to the annular wall, wherein the annular surface is thinned relative to the annular wall and the plate, thus forming an injection membrane.

Made of aluminum capsule cups are practically inelastic and have a plastic behavior. Looking at those from the EP 554 469 Known form of a capsule cup, so here the cup bottom is then formed on the conical jacket wall by a conical annular surface which is inclined towards the center and connects to the center of a small flat bottom plate. This shape stiffened in an aluminum version of the capsule bottom in the area in which the injection needles penetrate, namely in the conical annular surface of the soil. For a plastic version, however, this is by no means true. Here practically jumps by the heating and softening of the material under pressure, this outwardly arched bottom shape inwards and thus away from the injection needles. This leads to the phenomenon described above, that the injection needles are finally not or not completely passed through the capsule bottom. Only when at least some of the injection needles are completely guided through the cup bottom, an increased pressure is briefly built up in the capsule, which then perforated outwardly aluminum foil, which is welded on the flange, perforated as desired and the actual extraction process can take place. When building up the internal pressure, it may happen that the conical annular surface bulges outwards again due to the pressure build-up and that the injection needles, which have not penetrated completely or incompletely, can finally penetrate completely. However, if too much water and steam in the area between the extraction cup of the coffee extraction machine and the outside of the coffee capsule, so the pressure built up in the extraction cup raises the internal pressure in the capsule cup and a jump back into the convex initial shape of the capsule bottom can not be done. Thanks to the inventive Design of the capsule cup, the previously described change in shape of the bottom of the capsule cup can not be done. Shaping has virtually anticipated this change in shape. Further deformation is not possible.

Further particularly preferred features of the subject invention will become apparent from the dependent claims and the meaning thereof is explained in the following description with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 1

einen diametralen Vertikalschnitt durch eine bevorzugte Ausführungsform des Kapselbechers,

Fig. 2

einen Teilschnitt durch den Becherboden in einem grösseren Massstab, und

Fig. 3

eine Ansicht von oben in den Innenraum des Kapselbechers in einem kleineren Massstab als der Diametralschnitt gemäss der Fig. 1.

In the drawing, a preferred embodiment of the subject invention is shown. It shows:

Fig. 1

a diametrical vertical section through a preferred embodiment of the capsule cup,

Fig. 2

a partial section through the bottom of the cup on a larger scale, and

Fig. 3

a view from above into the interior of the capsule cup on a smaller scale than the diametral section according to the Fig. 1 ,

Brief description of the drawings

The Indian Fig. 1 shown capsule cup is designated overall by 1. The capsule cup 1 is formed essentially by a conical jacket wall 2, which ends at the upper edge in a flange 3 projecting outwardly. This flange 3 serves primarily for closing the capsule cup Plastic or aluminum foil to be welded on it. Secondary, this flange serves in the

Coffee extraction machine to hold the capsule cup precisely positioned clamped. The formal design of the flange 3 must of course be adapted adapted to the machine-side extraction cup.

At its tapered end of the capsule cup is closed by the cup bottom 4. The cup bottom 4 has no openings, but is perforated only by the machine-side injection needles in their use.

The cup bottom is peripherally bounded by a circumferential annular wall 5. The height of the circumferential annular wall is 0.5 - 4 mm, but preferably between 2 and 3.5 mm. The parallel to the axis of rotation vertically downwards, up or down and up relative to the lower edge 9 of the shell wall 2 directed annular wall 5, forms a stiffening of the capsule cup bottom 4. The actual cup bottom has two areas, namely on the one hand a centric, circular plate 6 and on the other hand an integrally adjoining thereto, to Becherinnenern inclined circumferential annular surface 7, which in turn is integrally connected to the annular wall 5. The wall thickness of the annular surface 7 is less than the thickness of the plate 6 and also less than the wall thickness of the annular wall 5. This annular surface 7 forms an injection membrane. The term "injection membrane" is intended on the one hand indicate the small wall thickness of the annular surface 7, while the term on the other hand indicates that this membrane is located where the machine-side injection needles pierce the cup bottom 4 of the capsule cup 1. The annular surface 7 is dimensioned so wide that the injection needles are still in this area of the annular surface 7 even in the permissible and possible centric deviations of the capsule cup in the held position in the extraction cup.

The connection of the annular surface 7 always takes place on the annular wall 5. This can be done at any height of the annular wall 5. In the FIG. 4 the various possibilities are shown schematically. All sections of the FIGS. 4 are diametrically opposed, but in contrast to Fig. 1 not by a support plates 13, 13 'through, but between two support plates 13, 13' extending laid.

The FIG. 4C shows a solution which the execution according to the FIG. 1 equivalent. The connection of the annular surface 7 takes place here, as already described above, at the lower edge 8 of the annular wall 5. The connection of the annular surface 7 can also take place at an arbitrary intermediate height on the annular wall 5, as in FIG. 4B shown, ultimately, the connection of the annular surface 7 on the annular wall 5 also take place at the foot of the annular wall 5, which is practically at the height of the lower edge 9 of the casing wall 2. This solution shows the FIG. 4A ,

It is imperative, however, that the annular surface 7 always extends from the connection point on the annular wall 5 to the plate 6 in a negative angle α to the interior 20 of the capsule cup 1. This negative angle is usually in a size between 5 ° and 30 °, depending on the height difference between the point of attachment of the annular surface 7 on the plate. 6

In the Figures 4D - 4F the annular wall 5 is offset with respect to the lower edge 9 of the side wall 2 of the capsule cup 1 so that from the lower edge 9 of the side wall 2 both upwards, into the interior 20 of the capsule cup 1, as well as down relative to the connection point the side wall 2, extends. Again, the connection of the annular surface 7 can be made to the annular wall 5 at different heights, as the FIGS. 4D-F demonstrate.

The FIGS. 4G to 4I show finally still those variants in which the annular wall 5 is directed from the connection point to the bottom edge 9 of the side wall 2 completely into the interior 20 inside. Again, the point of attachment of the annular surface 7, which forms the connection with the plate 6, can now be formed at different heights on the annular wall 5, namely at the top ( Fig. 4G ) or at the lowest ( Fig. 4I ) or in between ( Fig. 4H ).

The plate 6 of the cup bottom 4 is offset from the lower edge 8 of the annular wall 5 by a height H of 0.3 to 1.0 mm to the interior. Both the lower edge 8 of the annular wall 5 as well as the plate 6 extend in parallel planes, which in turn extend parallel to the plane in which the flange 3 extends and perpendicular to the axis of symmetry 10 of the capsule cup first

The conical jacket wall 2 of the capsule cup 1 is preferably, but not necessarily by two opposing curvatures 11, 12 directly into the annular wall 5 via. In this area a plurality of support plates 13 are arranged in the interior of the capsule cup 1. The support slats 13 are limited by end edges 14 toward the center. These end edges extend at least approximately parallel to the axis of symmetry 10. The end edges 14 go directly in alignment with the inner surface of the circumferential annular wall in this over. Thus, the introduction of force of a pressure on the lower edge of the annular wall 8 is optimally introduced via the support plates 13 in the jacket wall 2 of the capsule cup 1. The exact form of the support slats is most clearly recognizable in the slats cut in the diametrical section. In the support slats all end edges 14 are the same length. In the peripheral connection of these support plates on the casing wall 2, extending alternately a support plates 13 'only up to the height of the transition of the conical Mantle wall 2 into the two opposite curvatures 11, 12, which merge into circumferential annular wall 5. The other support plates 13 are inclined in the direction of the flange upwards and extend into the region of the conical jacket wall 2 inside.

As already mentioned, the capsule cup 1 is molded from plastic. In a conventional injection process, in principle, the injection nozzle of the injection mold at any point in the cavity open, in which the capsule cup 1 is formed. Here, however, the capsule cup 1 is preferably produced by co-injection with a barrier layer. In a co-injection process, the entire cavity from the injection site as far as possible everywhere equally long flow paths should be present so as not to destroy the barrier layer. This condition is given in a rotationally symmetrical body, as is the capsule cup present here, when the injection nozzle orifice is in the rotational axis of symmetry. The injection nozzle orifice protrudes into an injection nozzle recess 15.

The invention also relates to an injection mold, which is suitable for the production of the inventive capsule cups made of plastic. Such an injection mold has at least one cavity which corresponds to the negative mold of the capsule cup 1. Preferably, such an injection mold be equipped with a co-injection nozzle to produce the capsule cup co-injected with a barrier layer provided.

Thanks to its shape, the capsule cup according to the invention is still dimensionally stable even when the cup is correspondingly heated in the relatively hot extraction cup of the coffee extraction machine. In particular, the annular surface 7, which forms the injection membrane 7, practically can hardly deform. The injection membrane 7 is between the plate 6 and the lower edge of the annular wall 5 in a constantly tensioned position. When penetration of the hypodermic needles, this annular surface is practically not deformed and only when a pressure is built up in the capsule cup, the plate 6 can lift slightly under this internal pressure built up, but this only leads to all hypodermic needles evenly penetrate deeper into the capsule cup 1. In contrast to the usual today and well-known capsule cups with an outwardly cambered bottom thus occurring under pressure, inward deformation is practically already anticipated and therefore can not be done. Hereby, the perforation of the designed as an injection membrane ring surface is always uniform.

Characterized in that both the wall thickness of the conical jacket wall, the wall thickness of the annular wall and the thickness of the plate At least approximately all are the same, on the one hand ensures that a capsule cup is formed as stable as possible and on the other hand a uniform flow as possible during the production of the capsule cup, which is particularly optimal for the production with a barrier layer. Only the annular surface 7, which forms the injection membrane and the support plates 13, 13 'have a smaller wall thickness. Preferably, the wall thickness, in particular of the annular surface serving as injection membrane, has a wall thickness which corresponds at most to half the wall thickness of the jacket wall of the annular wall and the thickness of the plate. Merely for the sake of completeness, it should be mentioned that here, as with most capsule cups, a peripheral sealing lip may be provided on the surface of the flange 3 in the direction of the cup bottom, which seals the capsule cup in relation to the extraction cup of the coffee extraction machine. The peripheral edge of the flange 3 has an edge 17 which is angled towards the cup bottom 4 or has a sealing bead which serves for centering and clamping the capsule cup 1 in the extraction cup of the extraction machine.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMBERS

1

capsule cup

2

Conical jacket wall

3

flange

4

cup base

5

Circumferential ring wall

6

plate

7

ring surface

8th

Lower edge of the ring wall

9

Lower edge of the shell wall 2

10

axis of symmetry

11, 12

two opposite curvatures

13

support slats

13 '

shorter support slats

14

End edges of the support slats

15

Co-injection nozzle recess

17

Angled edge of the flange 3

20

inner space

Claims (11)

On the shape of an extraction cup of an extraction coffee machine with several injection nozzles adapted, injection-molded, rotationally symmetrical capsule cup (1) made of plastic with a substantially conical jacket wall (2), at its upper cup edge a circumferential flange (3) is formed and a cup base (4) , which is completely closed, characterized in that the cup base (4) has a circumferential annular wall (5) to which the cup base (4) is integrally formed and this one with respect to the annular wall (5) inwardly offset circular plate (6) which is connected via an inwardly inclined annular surface (7) with the annular wall (5), wherein the annular surface (7) opposite the annular wall (5) and the plate (6) is diluted and forms an injection membrane. Capsule cup made of plastic according to claim 1, characterized in that the annular wall (5) from a connection point to the lowest edge (9) of the side wall (2) down (Fig. AC), up (Fig. 4G-I) or extends down and up (Fig. 4D-F). Plastic capsule cup according to claim 2, characterized in that the annular surface (7) on the annular wall (5) at the bottom (Fig. 4C, F, I), at the top (Fig. 4A, D, G) or in between (Fig. 4B, E, H) is formed. Capsule cup made of plastic according to claim 1, characterized in that the conical jacket wall (2) of the capsule cup (1) merges into two opposing curvatures (11, 12) in the annular wall (5). Capsule cup made of plastic according to claim 4, characterized in that in the transition region from the conical jacket wall (2) to the annular wall (5) several, in the interior (20) of the capsule cup (1) arranged, directed towards the axis of rotation, radially extending support slats (13, 13 ') are present. Capsule cup made of plastic according to claim 5, characterized in that the supporting lamellae are aligned inwardly directed boundary edges (14) with the inner surface of the annular wall (5). Capsule cup made of plastic according to claim 1, characterized in that the wall thickness of the conical jacket wall (2), the wall thickness of the annular wall (5) and the thickness of the plate (6) are at least approximately equal. Capsule cup made of plastic according to claim 5, characterized in that the wall thickness of the support slats (13, 13 ') is at most half the wall thickness of the jacket wall (2). Capsule cup made of plastic according to claim 1, characterized in that the capsule cup (1) is injected co-axially with a barrier layer. Injection mold with at least one cavity, which is designed so that it defines a capsule cup according to at least one of claims 1 to 9. Injection mold according to claim 10, characterized in that it is provided with a co-injection nozzle which opens in the center of the cavity region defining the plate (6).

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